'Dateline' Takes On The Touchy Issues Of Race

TELEVISION

June 27, 1997|By Hal Boedeker, Sentinel Television Critic

Tom Brokaw quizzes a white woman about shopping at a mall with a mostly black clientele. She has never had a problem there and knows no one who has, but still she's afraid. ''How do we get beyond that, Sally, that you just don't feel comfortable?'' Brokaw asks kindly.

''I don't know how you do that,'' she says. ''It's just a fact of life.''

Later, Brokaw asks a black father how he would feel if his son dated a white girl. ''You do ask the tough questions,'' the father replies with a laugh. He would support his son, the father adds, but has reservations because ''we don't live in a color-blind society.''

President Clinton asked for a dialogue on race in America, and NBC News has come through with the insightful and ultimately depressing ''Why Can't We Live Together?''

This special edition of Dateline NBC, at 9 tonight on WESH-Channel 2, focuses on Matteson, Ill., a Chicago suburb evenly divided between blacks and whites. But more blacks are moving in as whites leave.

The yearlong project, produced with Scripps Howard News Productions, is certainly an above-average Dateline. There are no fluffy gimmicks tonight.

This isn't a lofty discussion but a series of natural, low-key conversations, with Brokaw gently prodding people. The NBC anchor does a superb job of getting people to open up about a delicate topic.

''We don't much like to talk about race, not in public,'' Brokaw says. ''Everyone is afraid of being misunderstood.''

He asks white homeowners why they left Matteson and black homeowners if they care. ''That's their problem,'' replies a black homeowner. ''They've got to get a grip.''

Matteson, however, wants to keep racial balance and is recruiting white homeowners to move in. ''We have affirmative action for white people, and I think it's time,'' quips one black homeowner.

For every white family looking for a Matteson home, 25 black families are doing the same. Racial balance is crucial because no black suburb of significant size has prospered after turning all black, Brokaw says.

Anecdotes fill the program, with people talking about their hopes, fears and memories. A white woman who left the suburb recalls being threatened by black youths. A young black husband and wife, both attorneys, savor moving into a home.

Old stereotypes continue to flourish. In the program's strongest segment, Brokaw starts debunking perceptions about what has happened in the suburb.

Blacks are bringing crime to Matteson, some whites say. But the crime rate has remained stable, says the Matteson police chief, who adds there's no correlation between crime and an increase in the black population.

Educational quality declined, says a white father who left the suburb. But there's no evidence that standards are lower at Rich Central High, which is 80 percent black.

White assumptions are deeply ingrained, Brokaw notes, and segregation continues because of unspoken fears. Blacks fear cross-burnings on their lawns. ''KKK'' is scrawled on an abandoned white church that blacks wanted to buy. Parents worry that their children will become too close to youngsters of other races.

Early on, Brokaw wonders if the Matteson story could have broader application for other communities. Dale Graham, a white suburb trustee, comes through on that point. ''We cannot live segregated in our own individual, little pockets if we're ever going to reach the potential this country was created for,'' he says.

But ''Why Can't We Live Together?'' ends with pessimistic views. A white homeowner who left Matteson says a white neighbor hasn't forgiven him for moving away. A black homeowner expects to die without seeing an improvement in race relations.

''When you think you've reached a plateau and achieved something, you're still not accepted, no matter what,'' says William Patterson, another black homeowner.